Day 05: Clay Lick and Jungle Tour

As promised, we got our wake-up call at 4:30. Of course, this wake-up consisted of Delford walking past the curtains at the entrance to our rooms and quietly telling us what time it was. That was sufficient. With very little (just matting, essentially) between rooms, noise travels easily.

During the night there was a downpour. It woke me up sometime around 2:00 AM. It sounded like the sky was falling. Gwenn had chosen the bed closer to the open outside wall of our room and in the morning, she reported that she’d gotten a bit wet. i remained dry and the temperature cooled down enough that I actually pulled some covers over me. (It has been very, very hot and humid–being the tropics, after all). At some point I fell back asleep until the general movement woke me up. Luckily the four rooms for our group are all in a row so hopefully our noise was localized.

The first picture for today is of our group at the entrance, finding and putting on the rubber boots they thoughtfully provide for common use. Notice the shoes piled on the middle bench where we put them while we’re using the boots. Notice also the sticks in the square box at the right of the picture. The guides choose one of these to take along on the walks. Delford used one to turn over logs and point things out on our walks. Very handy.

So we were off in the dark, each wearing our headlamps to light the way. Despite the overnight rain, the jungle floor looked and felt exactly as it had the day before. Our path was back to the river and onto the boat for a five-minute trip upstream. Another short walk through the jungle brought us to the area across a river tributary from the clay lick. We got here before light so we could settle down in our spots and wait for the birds to arrive.

Once in our spots, Delford offered us early morning tea and snacks since we wouldn’t get breakfast until we returned to the lodge. (I had hot chocolate and a package of flat cookies.) Then we patiently waited as the sun came up. The birds began to arrive. They land in the trees first and look out for predators. Eventually some fly along over the river, further checking things out. Then, at long last, some birds move to the clay areas (the bare red areas in the picture). All this took over an hour, I’d guess.

There were really beautiful macaws of various types, plus parrots and some other birds. Those into birding would recognize them. Delford had a card with pictures that he showed us. He also had the trusty Bushnell telescope so we got some great sightings, but even without that, seeing the birds was just amazing. They were close enough, sometimes flying right over head or close in front of us, that we could easily see blues, reds, greens, yellows, oranges. It was gorgeous!

And the noise was amazing. I took some videos, not because I expected the video to show much but because I wanted to capture the sound. (Don’t hold your breath to see those–maybe someday!)

I really didn’t take many pictures because even my new, fancy lens didn’t get close enough to show details. I’ve cropped some so you can get an idea of what we were looking at. Birds in trees, a whole flock flying together in the sky, and then a lone white heron that came in to feed along the shore.

The pictures that have a rounded, black edge are pretty special. That’s because Delford had a trick up his sleeve with the telescope–he could focus the camera through the telescope to get a closer shot than the camera could get on its own. In fact, he could even do that through one side of a regular set of binoculars, though the focus is harder because of having to hold both the binoculars and the camera. Anyway, the shots like this are of some parrots (green), two of that white heron, and some macaws (blue).

The sun was out briefly and I took advantage of that to capture a nice reflection of a tree stump in the water.

We spent a couple of hours here, just taking in the unique site; well, unique to us! I have to say again how impressed I am with the binoculars I got just before the trip. They’re very easy to sight in and the magnification is great. What they show is a good second-best to the telescope that Delford had.

Eventually we returned to and boarded the boat. They’re very thoughtful about having a ramp for us to walk on across the shore, which is rocky and muddy. If you’ve noticed the shape of the boats, the front is long and pointed. To land, they just drive into the shore. To leave, though, is a bit more difficult. What they do is rock the boat, literally. They move it side to side to loosen the grip on the shore. I think it takes a lot of skill to not dump the boat over! Occasionally they give it an extra push with a pole, and then we’re free.

This time, they let the boat just drift backwards in the current to return to the landing for the Tambopata Research Center where we’re staying. I don’t think I got a picture yesterday, so what looks like shoreline on a flowing river is it. Not very built up. If you look closely, you’ll see a ladder that we climb to get up the bank.

Just as we were landing, I saw a couple of spiders. If you look closely at the picture of the river rocks, you’ll see one hugging the light rock just above center. I was very glad to look and not touch!

We got back to the lodge for breakfast, then a little while later we headed out again for a nature walk. The blue semi-circle picture is of a moth, not a butterfly. Not all moths are drab brown, apparently. Who knew?

The “To TRC” sign points back the way we were coming from. The trails here are very nicely marked.

Some jungle treasures we saw included a tree with long strands of yellow flowers. If you can see the sickle-looking shape just above those, that’s what will soon bloom into the same flowers. Those strands turn into fruit and then the whole thing drops to the ground. We walked over several of them. We also saw a tree with a fabulous support structure, winding tendrils above ground.

Then there was a back-lit leaf that caught my fancy, plus a black and orange bug, a tree with red tendrils at the base, a brown leaf that appeared in just the right spot to be framed in the sun, and even though I didn’t get a clear picture, we even saw some Capuchin monkeys.

When we got to the river, it was again a welcome site. I do like being able to see farther than the next few trees, I have to say! Besides, we knew we were about 10-15 minutes from the lodge, and even though we took a side path so the walk was a little longer, it was nice to get my bearings. Besides, I had worn very thin socks and the rocky pathway under the boot soles was starting to get uncomfortable.

So, back at the lodge and after a good lunch, I made the decision to not go on the afternoon walk but to lounge around, read a bit, and work on this blog entry. It’s now just about time for dinner, so I’ll close for now. Tomorrow we’re heading back down river to the first place we stayed, Refugio Amazonas. We’ll stay there one night, then head further down the river to Puerto Maldonado and a flight off to Cusco, where another stage in this trip awaits.

Good night, all. Enjoy the pictures.